there's always next year

this about sums it up.

According to the NYTimes, people will read almost anything if it's in list form. Super. Because I haven't been feeling particularly loquacious on the blog front now that writing is my JOB and I've been catching a bit of heat for it. I mean, not a ton...okay fine, mostly from my dad. (hi dad!)

So i present you with my very own year-end roundup of cultural touchstones. One that seems to suggest our inevitable demise. Please, enjoy. And cringe. You should probably cringe.

In no particular order, THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL 2010:  

1. Sarah Palin's nonsensical drivel. Sarah Palin's Alaska. And most alarmingly, the support of Sarah Palin.

2. The Kardashians are inexplicably more ubiquitous, not less. 

3. Popular music is getting increasingly worse. ('twas the year of autotune and the "artists" it makes possible--like Ke$ha, for whom I just had to search for the dollar sign on my keyboard)

4. Dimwitted reality TV hits a fever pitch. (Teen Mom, Jersey Shore, Bridalplasty...need i go on?)

5. There was a 60-mile, 12-day traffic jam in China. No, really, there was.

6. Four Loko. Oh, you don't know what that is? Maybe you don't like projectile vomiting. Lightweight. For the uninitiated, one can is rumored to be the equivalent of five beers and two cups of coffee. It's not banned in 46 states.

7. That smoking baby, proving once and for all that Asians don't really love their children. 

8. A widow in Pennsylvania is discovered living with the corpses of her husband and sister. Again, yes, really.

9. Oprah is throwing in the towel. Prior to her departure, she hosts TWO final Favorite Things episodes, where paramedics are on deck in case the excitement goes beyond the typical pants-soiling.

10. Lindsay Lohan continues to dominate news wires despite not having done anything more interesting than being an incredible douche.